Helping

Native-Bees

in the Garden

If you’re afraid of bees, or afraid of being stung — don’t worry, bees, especially native-bees, rarely sting.

Honey-bees are not native to North America, but rather Europe; with resources already scarce, native-bees of North America are struggling to compete; help preserve our native-bees by learning how to identify and aid them.

Pop-Quiz Activity:

Before we start, how much do you already know about bees?

Question #1: What do bees search for in flowers?

A. Pollen

B. Nectar

C. All the above

Question #2: What are bees’ least favorite color?

A. Violet

B. Yellow

C. Red

Question #3: How do native-bees carry pollen?

A. Mouth

B. On Fuzzy-Hairs

C. Antennae

How’d you do? Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answers!

Types of Native-Bees:

Most native-bees are solitary, except the bumble-bee, and a few species of sweat-bees. Native-bees aren’t social beings like the European honey-bee, they don’t cluster in hives, they don’t have a queen, or worker-bees, and they don’t make honey.

Carpenter Bee:

Carpenter bees don’t sting, and nest in woods, more specifically: dead weathered trees, logs, or wooden-infrastructure such as: buildings, fences, or telephone-poles.

Appearance: Large-sized, and shiny, with a black, hairless abdomen and yellow marking on the thorax.

Mason Bee:

Mason bees use moist or dry soil to fill in gaps in nesting-cavities such as wood, or stone.

Appearance: Medium-sized, usually metallic greenish-blue, or black in color and slight hairy.

Mining Bee:

Mining bees nest by burrowing into soil, constructing their homes with mud and creating small mounds of soil. They love open patches of soil.

Appearance: Medium-sized, hairy, brown, or black in color.

Sweat Bee:

Sweat bees nest into the soil, or inside rotten-wood. While most sweat bees are solitary, some species of sweat bees are eusocial, meaning they live in a colony with certain bees performing specific duties.

Appearance: Small to medium sized, slender, non-hairy, brown, or black in color, but some are metallic green, blue, or purple.

Leafcutter Bee:

Leafcutter bees nest in the soil, or often in rotten-wood, constructing long, thin tunnels lined with circular-shaped leaf cutouts from native-plants such as: a redbud, or milkweed.

Appearance: Large-sized, hairy, with black and white stripes on their abdomen.

Bumble Bee:

Bumble bees are the most abundant species of the native-bees, they nest in dry enclosed cavities, either underground (ex. rodent-holes,) on the ground (ex. thick-grass,) or aboveground (ex. tree-holes).

Appearance: Large-sized, hairy, mostly black and yellow with occasional white or orange coloration.

Sweat Bee

Leafcutter Bee

Carpenter Bee

Spot the Difference: Bee, or Wasp?

Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answers!

Or

Decline of Native-Bees:

With natural-habitat loss becoming increasingly prevalent, and native-resources becoming scarce — native-bees can’t compete with the significantly more abundant, and social European honey-bee. By early-spring, the size of a honey-bee hive averages around 30,000 to 50,000, and are often the first to emerge upon the arrival of spring. You can imagine, with natural-resources declining, the effects this has on solitary native-bees.

Habitat Loss:

In Boston, despite community and organizational efforts to conserve and perserve the already sparse amounts of natural-habitat in our urban-spaces, the city of Boston continues to allow developers to encroah on, construct on, and/or destroy natural-habitats. Alongside the pollinators, where will the birds, and other critters go to hunker-down during the harsh winters, or scroching summers?

Invasive Plant Species:

Invasive species grow fast, and abudant, often replacing, or decimating perferred native-plant of many pollinators. Certain native-bees specialize in specific plants, such as the squash-bee which mostly collects pollen from cucurbits (squash, melons, zucchinis, pumpkins).

Pathogens:

As honey-bees and bumble-bees are transported across the U.S. for agricultural-use, there are chances of parasites spreading, and becoming increasingly prevalent, such as: mites, parasitic-fungi, viruses, bacteria, and parasitoids (parasitoids eject eggs inside a bee-host, the larva feeds on the insides of the bee, and eventually causing the bee’s death).

Spraying Pesticides:

Insecticides and fungicides are highly toxic to bees, spraying plants with these toxic compounds gets in their harvested nectar and pollen, which in-turns affects their health.

Fun-Fact:

Certain flowers (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers,) are difficult to access pollen without buzz-pollination; bumble-bees, carpenter-bees, and some sweat-bees are able to do buzz-pollination, but honey-bees cannot.

Common Eastern Bumble-Bee

Helping Native-Bees:

The decline of a native-bee species could mean the loss of a certain native-plant, or a whole habitat. And other animals which rely on these habitats will be severely affected. #savethebees could be as simple as planting native pollinator plants in your yard, or balcony, or even, your outside home-entrance.

Pollinator-Habitats:

An effective way of creating habitat-spaces in your garden starts with biodiversity and abundance. Creating microclimates for pollinators such as: planting clusters of native flowers and plants, especially white, yellow, blue, and purple flowers, will attract more pollinators, and additionally birds, and other critters. And good patches of soil in-between clusters will especially help the bees which burrow and nest into the ground.

List of Native Pollinator Plants:

Milkweed: Often seen as an undesired plant by how prolific they grow, this sentiment couldn’t be more wrong; this wonderful native-plant produces one of most beautiful clusters of flowers, and is an incredibly vital plant for many pollinators such as the monarch-butterfly and many native-bee species.

  • Common Milkweed

  • Swamp Milkweed

  • Butterfly Weed

  • Purple Milkweed (Endangered)

Aster: In Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin mentions how beautiful purple New England Asters and Goldenrods are when seen growing together, and how bees register this beauty as well.

  • New England Asters

  • Smooth Asters

  • White Wood Asters

Goldenrod: Equally as prolific as Milkweeds, you may have seen this clusterful yellow flower growing by roadsides, or open-fields.

  • Showy Goldenrod

  • Zig-Zag Goldenrod

Joe Pye Weed: A critical food-source for many pollinators during the late-summer, Joe Pye Weed, a tall, plentiful flowering-plant, is named after Joseph Shauquethqueat, a Mohican sachem (tribal leader,) during the 18th and early 19th century.

Cut-Leaf Coneflower: Strikingly yellow, Cut-Leaf Coneflowers are great at creating dense microclimates for sheltering critters during harsh weathers.

Giant Hyssop: With a rich licorice-scent, Giant Hyssop is structurally similar to lavenders, and blooms beautiful purple flowers which are sure to attract many pollinators.

Additional Native-Flowers:

Spotted Bee Balm — Woodland Sunflower — Saw-tooth Sunflower — Prairie Sunflower — Elderberry — Common Evening Primrose — Common Yarrow — New York Ironweed

Trees for Bees:

Native-trees are wonderful for pollinators, because when spring arrives, these trees become tall, gigantic columns of blooming paradise, providing pollen and nectar for various pollinators.

Witchhazel —American Linden — Flowering Dogwood — Sweetbay Magnolia — Black Cherry — Red Mulberry — Tulip Poplar — Red Maple — Sugar Maple — Bur Oak — White Oak

Answers:

Question #1: C

Question #2: C

Question #3: B

Spot the Difference: Left/Top: Wasp — Right/Bottom: Bee